To some, it's the overture to a new era of sonic freedom; to others, the swansong of an industry dying a slow death. Whichever prophecy turns out to be true, no one is denying that the current wave of music-streaming services recently launched in Australia marks the beginning of a quiet revolution that is changing the way we listen to music.

The past three months have seen an avalanche of such services appearing locally - international juggernauts Spotify and Rdio, Telstra's upcoming MOG service, JB Hi-Fi's NOW, and smaller brands such as Deezer and Songl. If the names are strangers to you, so were Google and Facebook not so long ago. Overseas reports suggest that these services are the music equivalent of such digital giants.

The concept is simple, though it's hard to convey the full impact in words. Sign up, and your computer or phone instantly has access to every song ever recorded. That's how it feels, at least. The various services usually offer about 15 million titles, and even the back catalogues of faded indie bands or that track you hadn't thought about since you were 12 turn up after a quick search. Some services, such as Spotify, offer free access if you're willing to put up with a few ads once in a while, while most have a small monthly fee that's less than the cost of a CD.

Spotify on a mobile.

No big deal, right? We already have YouTube, iTunes and the like. But in the US and Europe, where music streaming has been around for almost a decade, the figures tell a different story. In the first 70 days of the year in the US, more than 4.5 billion streams were tracked by Nielsen BDS. In Britain, downloads and streaming combined made up 55 per cent of the music industry's revenue for the first quarter of the year.

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Niv Novak, the Australian managing director of wireless hi-fi maker Sonos, has been paying close attention to the rise of digital streaming abroad. ''Until about two years ago, none of these companies was making money,'' he says. ''None was generating significant revenue for the labels.''

Now, Novak says, Spotify alone is the second-largest source of revenue for music labels. Industry wisdom suggests that soon enough, music services will be as much a part of our digital existence as text messaging. ''Everyone will have one,'' Novak says.

Pick of the bunch.

''Whenever anyone posts a link or a blog does a Christmas playlist or whatever, you'll click on it and it will just start working whatever music service you have. The music will be unlocked for everyone and if you're not in, you're left out.''

Not everyone is ecstatic about all of this. ''One of the stats I read recently was that a customer had to listen to about 350 songs for the label to make as much revenue as it would selling one track on iTunes,'' Novak says.

A much-quoted article argues that the number of Spotify plays an artist would require to earn the minimum US monthly wage is more than 4 million. For a few bucks, an entire world of music can open up before us, but the people who made it don't hold the keys to that door.

''Record stores have closed without streaming music services,'' Novak says. ''HMV and Sanity and Virgin aren't around any more. But Telstra, in a couple of years, might have a couple of million mobile subscribers paying maybe $3 a month for music services, and the labels will be making $12 million that they never had.''

So while last year high-profile acts, including Adele and Coldplay, refused to make their albums available on Spotify - since free streaming might discourage listeners from buying - both eventually relented. It's testament to the service's ubiquity that they couldn't afford not to.

To truly opt out of the new world order, it would take a band already so popular that it could simply shrug at a revolution. That's why one of the few remaining holdouts you won't find on Spotify is that little group called the Beatles.